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Fil-Ams charged extra fee to deliver balikbayan boxes

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Several Filipino-Americans are demanding that RDR Services Corporation owner Rommel del Rosario fulfill his duty and deliver the balikbayan boxes to their loved ones in the Philippines.

One Fil-Am, Joe Soriano, shipped a total of 12 boxes from February to April through RDR Services. At USD45 (PHP 2,106) per box, Soriano paid a total of USD540 (PHP25,273) for door-to-door delivery that should have been completed last June.

Soriano said del Rosario’s mother, Minerva, is the manager of the shop and would usually be the one operating the shop when they visit. Minerva would say the balikbayan boxes will arrive in no time.

Orlando Lacia, a doorman and a former RDR agent, sent a total of 23 boxes at USD40 (PHP1,872) each beginning September 2015. Fifteen of those boxes were his own. He had gone home to Cebu three times the previous year, the boxes nowhere to be found.

What used to be RDR storefront in Woodside, Queens is now Online PinoyPadalaBalikbayan Box Service. However, the new owner, Sylvia Crawford, claimed her cargo business has nothing to do with RDR Services, but she has kept all the past records and invoices from RDR Cargo and that all the pending containers held at Bureau of Customs in the Philippines will be released by the end of the month.

Crawford said she will deliver the box if she sends a picture and the receipt from Aboitiz Cargo or if LBC picks up the box in the morning. She will even send the picture of the box to the Fil-Am’s family.

However, there is a catch. Crawford is now asking customers to pay another PHP2,000 of USD40 per box on top of the USD45 per box the customers have already paid to RDR.

Joie Caleb create a Facebook page called “RDR Cargo, deliver our boxes now” that connected about 50 members all facing the same situation. He encouraged all victims to file a complaint in the city, state, and federal offices.